Change is constant in information technology. Computer networks and, in particular, network administration must adapt at the same pace. Whether network administration involves providing deep information for network analytics, simplifying operational tasks, or providing a platform for new services, networks need to be innovation-ready.
Networking hardware or networking equipment typically refers to devices which provide and manage a computer network. Typically, such devices include gateways, routers, network bridges, switches, hubs, and repeaters, among other devices.
A network switch is a computer networking device that links network segments or network devices. The term commonly refers to a multi-port network bridge that processes and routes data at the data link layer (layer 2) of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. Switches that additionally process data at the network layer (layer 3) and above are often called layer-3 switches or multilayer switches. Switches are available various network protocols or technology including Fibre Channel, Asynchronous Transfer Mode, InfiniBand, Ethernet and others.
One inefficiency of network administration is that a network device (e.g., router or switch) is purchased hard coded with protocols. The only way to add new support is to install a complete new software image onto the device. In a conventional system, enabling protocol discovery and classification only works for supported interfaces, flows, and protocols. A network administrator manually interprets the results, for example, to identify unknown protocols used by devices attached to the network and put in place the policies associated with those protocols, allowing the networking infrastructure to process traffic sent by the attached devices. Based on an administrator evaluation of the protocol discovery results, the network administrator can, for example, load and assign a supported protocol pack. The network administrator can also identify flows that should have custom rules. For example, the network administrator can define a traffic class and policy and manually associate the traffic class and policy. Such a scheme not only limits what can be monitored, but each step of the process flow requires administrator evaluation, identification, and implementation of flows, rules, and policies.
Further, “asymmetric” protocols (e.g., protocols that are routed to different endpoints via load balancing, or protocols that use different upstream and downstream paths) are not effectively monitor-able and controllable on a switch level or a multi-switch level.